Students, staff and faculty members are now able to go and craft an Eastern related Christmas ornament for the tree located in the Marvin Foyer of Booth Library.

Anyone can go to Booth to make their own ornament.

Beth Heldebrandt, the public relations director for Booth, said this would be the first time Booth has put together an event like this, and it was uncertain how people would react to it.

“We weren’t sure if people would be interested; we just set up this table last week over Thanksgiving break so Sunday was the first day the library was open since we set it up,” Heldebrandt said. “By Monday, we had six ornaments on the tree so I thought that was a good sign.”

There will be a large variety of free material for anyone to use to create their own ornaments, whether it is Eastern students, faculty or Charleston residents.

“They’re not obligated to put them on our tree, it’s just something to do during the last two weeks of school,” Heldebrandt said. “We would love to display (the ornaments) on our tree, but we also love to see them take them home and get a little EIU representation at home as well.”

Some of the items people can use to make their ornaments include sequins, ribbons and other arts and craft materials.

“It seems to be popular, we weren’t sure if people would be interested in doing it, but it seems to be going well,” Heldebrandt said. “We have to come down to clean the table from time to time because it gets messy after people use stuff.”

Allen Lanham, the dean of library services, said the library hopes everyone will participate in the new event, according to the press release.

“We hope everyone will help to decorate the library by placing their unique ornament on the EIU-themed tree in the library’s Marvin Foyer,” Lanham said.

Besides the make-an-ornamental, Heldebrandt said Booth would also be doing other events for students during finals week.

“We set out puzzles and Sudoku, and this time, we’re going to have some coloring pages because apparently adult coloring books are all the rage now,” Heldebrandt said.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu